Pity the Billionaire: The Unlikely Resurgence of the American Right - Softcover

Thomas Frank

3.8

1,936 ratings by Goodreads

9781846556029: Pity the Billionaire: The Unlikely Resurgence of the American Right

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846556023 ISBN 13: 9781846556029

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2012

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Economic meltdown usually brings calls for change - or it's supposed to. But when Thomas Frank set out to find these, all he heard were loud demands that the losers be hit harder and that the winners get more. We were told for decades that the market knows best, then had a once-in-a-lifetime crash. And now we see a popular uprising supporting free-market principles. As Frank explains, until 2009 the man on the dole did not weep for the man lounging on his yacht. Using first-hand reporting, a deep political understanding and a wicked sense of humour, Frank looks at the weird double-think that has enlisted the powerless in a fan club for the prosperous. "Pity The Billionaire" takes us on a wild road-trip through the strange landscape of the American Right, the Tea Party and Glenn Beck, makes sense of a topsy-turvy world and shows how instead of complying with the new speed limit, conservative America has stamped hard on the accelerator. It is essential reading for understanding how we all got to where we are, and how we might get out.

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About the Author:

Thomas Frank is the author of The Wrecking Crew, What's the Matter with America?, and One Market Under God. A former opinion columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Frank is the founding editor of the Baffler and a monthly columnist for Harper's. He lives outside Washington, D.C.

Review:

"No one fools Thomas Frank, who is the sharpest, funniest, most intellectually voracious political commentator on the scene. In Pity the Billionaire he has written a brilliant expose of the most breath-taking ruse in American political history: how the right turned the biggest capitalist breakdown since 1929 into an opportunity for themselves." -- Barbara Ehrenreich "Brisk and searing and deeply informed by the lessons of history (shocking notion!), Frank's latest guide for the perplexed is nothing less than a precious gift to us. Read it, and finally--You. Will. Understand." Rick Perlstein "Frank is one of the best leftwing writers America has produced" -- Nick Cohen Observer "Trenchant and witty" -- Alexandra Frean The Times

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